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February 7, 2011Dear President Obama and U.S. Attorney General Holder:
We write out of grave concern regarding the recent FBI raids on the homes of peace activists, labor organizers and socialists around the country. The raids began on September 24, 2010 in Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota. Twenty-three activists have now been issued subpoenas to appear before a Grand Jury or face possible imprisonment. The FBI confiscated computers, cell phones, children's artwork, documents, personal papers and photographs, including one of Martin Luther King shaking hands with Malcolm X. These violations of citizen privacy have been justified by FBI claims that it is investigating “material links to terrorism.”
The 16 women and 7 men targeted by the FBI are well-known in their communities as organizers for peace and justice. They have no links whatsoever to terrorism. Yet the FBI has ordered them to provide information regarding their political work, address books and contacts in the U.S. and abroad, particularly in Palestine and Colombia. This constitutes a sweeping witch hunt for information about protected citizen activity, one that calls to mind the McCarthyism of the 1950’s and the COINTELPRO operations of the 1960’s and 70’s. Forcing these activists to provide such information could seriously jeopardize the lives of human rights advocates who are facing repressive governments in other countries.
Before Nelson Mandela became president of South Africa, his organization, the African National Congress, was on the U.S. terrorist list because of its organized resistance to the fundamental racism of apartheid rule. Would the FBI raid someone who wrote a letter of support to an imprisoned Nelson Mandela? The Constitution protects every U.S. citizen's right to freedom of speech, association and assembly. It is these protected rights that the recent FBI raids and Justice Department subpoenas clearly violate, threatening democracy itself in these United States.
The Inspector General of the Department of Justice recently criticized the FBI for its inappropriate surveillance of peace and justice organizations. But the FBI is apparently ignoring this report and continuing to abuse its authority. The Inspector General also revealed that hundreds of FBI agents had cheated on their domestic surveillance exams. Apparently, serious corrections are badly needed.
Here in the Northwest, we have not forgotten the false FBI terrorism charges after 9/11 against the owners of a Somali grocery store and wire service in South Seattle. In 2009, Olympia activists planning nonviolent civil disobedience against the war in Iraq were infiltrated by an Army intelligence agent, who passed information to the FBI, police, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Recent media reports indicate that the FBI is acquiring an ever larger database of people who they claim need to be watched, apparently including peace activists, labor organizers and socialists.
We are also disturbed by the FBI’s renewed targeting of the Muslim community with its so-called “sting operations.” Most recently the FBI attempted to infiltrate an agent provocateur into the Muslim community in Irvine, California, and it entrapped two young Muslim American men, including an Oregon teenager, into phony terrorist plots. These FBI entrapment tactics are creating anti-Muslim hysteria in those communities, which should not be the policy of our government.
We are greatly concerned about these threats to our democracy, our First Amendment rights, and the civil liberties of all people who reside in the United States. Please use your authority to stop these assaults on freedom of speech and association, to halt FBI entrapment tactics and Grand Jury witch hunts, to keep nonviolent activists from being sent to prison, and to assure that all property seized by the FBI is returned to the rightful owners.
Thank you for your prompt attention to these most serious matters. We await your proactive response.
cc: Representative Jim McDermott,
Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell
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